Languages & literature > Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane > Volume 3

15® The ADVENTURES of
both (hips, in which we found fourfcore Chriftlansi
whom they were carrying as (laves to Barbary;
Then, taking advantage of a favourable wind thai
fprung up for the coaft of Grenada, we arrived,
in a little time, at Punta de Helena.
While we aflced the (laves, whonj we had de¬
livered, the places of their nativity, J put that
queftipn to a man of a good mein, who feemeti
to be about fifty years of age. He anfwered with a
ligh, that he was from Antequara. I felt a ftrangf
(emotion at his reply, without knowing wherefore j
and he perceiving it, was remarkably diftuihed in
his turn. “ I am, (faid I) your townfman : may
J ask the name of your family i" “ Alas ! he re-j
plied) you renew my grief, by defiring me to gra¬
tify your curiofity. Eighteen years ago I quitted
Antequera, where J cannot be remembered with-*
put horror: you yourfelf may, perhaps, have
heard of me but too often : my name is'Don Ana-i
flafio de Rada.” “ Juft heaven I (cried I) can I
believe my own fenfes ? What ! is this Don Ana-s
ftafio, my own father, whom I fee!” “ Wha^
is that you fay, young man ? (cried he in his turn,
looking at me with furprize) is it poffible that yotii
are that unhappy infant, which was in its mother’s!
womb, when I facrificed her to my fury ?" “ Ves^
iny father, .(fajd I) I am he whom the virtuous
Eftephania brought into the world, three month*
after that fatal night, on yvhich you left her wel-^
tering in her blood.”
Don Anaftafio, before I had finifhed thefe words,
fell upon my neck, clafped me in his arms, and,
for a whole quarter of an hour, we did nothing!
but mingle pur fighs and tears. After having;!
yielded to thofe tender emotions, that fuch a meet¬
ing could not fail to raife, roy father lifted up his;
eye*,.